1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention generally relate to the field of computer processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique used for rendering a real world three-dimensional scene onto a two-dimensional monitor using pixels is called ray tracing. The ray tracing technique traces the propagation of imaginary rays, rays which behave similar to rays of light, into a three-dimensional scene which is to be rendered onto a computer screen. The rays originate from the eye(s) of a viewer sitting behind the computer screen and traverse through pixels, which make up the computer screen, towards the three-dimensional scene. Each traced ray proceeds into the scene and may intersect with objects within the scene. If a ray intersects an object within the scene, properties of the object and several other contributing factors are used to calculate the amount of color and light, or lack thereof, the ray is exposed to. These calculations are then used to determine the final color of the pixel through which the traced ray passed.
The process of tracing rays is carried out many times for a single scene. For example, a single ray may be traced for each pixel in the display. Once a sufficient number of rays have been traced to determine the color of all of the pixels which make up the two-dimensional display of the computer screen, the two-dimensional synthesis of the three-dimensional scene can be displayed on the computer screen to the viewer.